THE BIG YEAR IN BEER

Saturday, January 10, 2015

It’s official. The Big Year In Beer 2014 has
concluded. Contrary to my waning bloggery, my focus remained intense, and
I pulled no punches in the final month.

Despite serious financial panic, I was able to map out the
end of my journey, nailing my numbers by way of well contemplated frugality.
Additionally fortuitous were a year-end sampling sweep at the awe-inspiring OC Brew Ho Ho festival, substantial tasting adventures in Riverside
and Chico, coupled
with innumerable generous donations, leftover single bottles, and inexpensive
samplers. I cruised across the finish line on New Year’s Eve with mixed
emotions of relief, exultation, and melancholy as I silently reflected on the
past…

My first Big Year In Beer ended November 15, 2013 (*Note: I
pursued it for 365 days, but just not adhering strictly on the calendar year).
At the end of my solo 2013 Big Year, I racked up 610 unique beers, a total that
I and my friends considered a considerable feat at the time. During
casual conversation with my old pal Chris Wilder about what we would envision
as a truly Big Year, I scoffed at the idea of even hitting 1,000 during the
course of a year. Wilder countered by reminding me that reaching the goal
of 1,000 would only require an average of three different beers each day.
In those terms it seemed reasonable. But did that many beers even exist?
Oh, how cute my naivety must have been.

I thought it would be fun to make my one-man challenge open
to the public, so I drafted some rules and posted them here. The gauntlet
was laid down, but I didn’t truly expect anyone else to attempt this year-long
challenge, let alone attempt to beat me.

At midnight on New Year’s Day 2014 I hit the ground running,
and three weeks later I was well into my first hundred beers, already one-sixth
of the way to matching my previous year’s accomplishment. Am I a stud or
what?

But alas, my inflated sense of studliness was loudly & quickly deflated with a Chris Wilder-sized pin when I learned he was already ahead of me, in
spite of the fact that he fibbed, albeit poorly, about not pursuing a Big Year
because he was “too busy”. The topper was finding out Randy Carncross, an
old buddy and expatriate rooted in the beer scene in Japan, was also
participating and he was a whopping 80 beers ahead of me! Despite the
sizeable boot prints on my trampled ego, I trudged forward, convinced I was
already beaten, but still intent on pursuing a new Personal Best.

My Last Place
standing dragged even more extensively after being plagued with a mysterious,
lingering sickness for three weeks during the Spring. Daily fever, chills,
and night sweats resulted in numerous days not sampling any beers whatsoever,
all the while Wilder & Carncross continued in front of the pack, gaining
ever-increasing leads.

Thanks to what was essentially free travel with the band
Infest, I traveled the country & had the opportunity to sample many regional brews I otherwise would
not have encountered in California. That helped boost my spirits and my palate, and to my astonishment, by June, Carncross was already dropping out just shy of
1,000, and while checking in with Wilder I found I was quickly closing the gap on
his lead. The arbitrary goal of tasting 1,000 different beers was
important for me to reach first, mainly because I was convinced there was no
way in hell I was winning this competition overall, so I wanted at least one
feather for my cap. I pushed aggressively and on June 6th I hit Beer #1,000, and astounded I had beat Wilder to that goal by only a single
day. But I did it. A feat I considered impossible in 2013.

Yet I was about to discover the realms of impossibility had just
barely been skirted as I continued to crush the accelerator full throttle
during all waking hours. While I spent the first half of the year
trailing in last place, now I was in the driver’s seat. The first half of
the year I was aiming the crosshairs, but now I was the target. Wilder
could have overtaken my lead at any moment, so I beered with urgency.
While I loved every second, I also felt a constant self-imposed pressure to
keep tasting at every opportunity. I scoured publications and brewery sites daily
for all upcoming beer fests. I scanned all taps at all bars and
restaurants. I attended every possible weekend & weekday tasting at
Vendome in Studio
City. I purchased
every reasonably priced single bottle I could locate. Hey, maybe I could
actually reach 2,000?

This place is classy.

Little did I know how far this could go. In addition
to manic SoCal tasting all year round, by year’s end I had traveled as far as
Baltimore, Reno, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington DC, NYC, Dallas, Cleveland,
Pittsburgh, Oakland, Denver and tasted extensively in every city. I’m
exhausted just writing about it.

Jump to December 31, 2014 and I’m enjoying a cozy evening
with The Wife in front of a fire, watching my guilty pleasure “The Goodbye Girl” from 1976,
sipping on my final brew of the calendar year. As the ball dropped in
Times Square, with the duly noted West Coast delay, I had racked up a grand
total of 3,214 different beers for the year.

3,214.

Really.

And I live to tell the tale.

And, no, I still don’t believe it either.

My biggest takeaways from THE BIG YEAR IN BEER 2014:

1. Turns out my family
still loves me, in spite of my endless distraction, my constant wandering eye for tap takeovers. They stuck by me the whole time. No matter how many
times The Wife stated she was “over beer”, she still tolerated my manic
behavior and endless drinking excursions. True love, indeed.

2. Even after tasting 3,214 different ones, it turns out I still
love beer. I found beers in every style that I enjoyed, even in those
styles I had definitively dismissed in prior years, like brown and red ales.
Many preconceived notions were pleasantly shattered. And thanks to my
obsessive sampling I discovered several styles I never knew existed... stuff like
gratzers and sahtis and miscellaneous "ancient ales".

The Best of 2014:

1. My fellow
competitors: Steve Enders, Randy Carncross, and especially Chris “The
Machine” Wilder who pushed as hard as I did all 365 days without letting
up. If I wasn’t constantly chasing or being chased by Wilder, I’m
positive I wouldn’t have pushed myself nearly as far. This man put the Fear Of God into me even more than any Swiss noisecore band (look it up), and
I’m thankful to him for the year-long anxious motivation.

2. Dave “The Master”
Witte for being my beer guru all these years, schooling and supporting me at
every juncture. We live 3,000 miles apart, but I was fortunate to go
beering with this man a few times throughout the year. Best moments were
exploring San Diego
County breweries… I
didn’t want to hold him back from enjoying pints at Alpine or Societe, so I
told him, “Don’t worry about me. Forget about samplers, just get whatever you want.” His response:
“Fuck that, we’re a team, we’re hitting your numbers,”
followed by ordering samplers of every possible beer available. I love
this guy.

3. All events sponsored
by OC Brew Ha Ha. I attended their Sabroso, Brew Ha Ha, and Brew Ho Ho
fests, and all three were equally as well organized with ample parking, numerous food
options, plentiful water coolers, and excellent breweries offering unlimited
tastings. No hassle, all fun. I support all efforts of this
organization 100%.

4. Beer-wise it’s
practically impossible to pick favorites. The bar has been raised so high
across the board with brewers these days, I found it to be way less common to
taste a truly awful beer. Innumerable times I expected to be disappointed
and ended up happily surprised with high quality braus from the most unlikely
of places. With that in mind, I did slurp a few suds that were major
duds. There’s zero excuse for bad beer these days. There are way too many options
that are outstanding taste-wise & price-wise.